How does large scale native woodland restoration affect

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How does large scale native woodlandrestoration affect biodiversity?Understanding the ecological impacts of woodlandexpansion is crucial for ensuring that theenvironmental, social and economic aims of theunderlying land management policies are reconciled. Inthe UK, considerable native woodland creation onopen upland moorland is expected over comingdecades through governmental and non-governmentalinitiatives. This is predicted to benefit woodland birdsof conservation importance, but impact negatively onmoorland species, which are themselves also ofconservation importance. Negative impacts may occurthrough habitat replacement and woodland edgeeffectson remaining open ground, including avoidanceof trees and increased predation pressure. However,our knowledge of such edge-effects is derived fromnon-native coniferous woodland; there is littleecological understanding of whether similar effectsresult from native woodland, and such information is ofcritical policy importance.Specific questions to address are:1. How does the abundance and species richness ofwoodland and moorland bird communities vary inrelation to the configuration, proximity andcharacteristics of upland native woodland?2. How is the abundance and movement of predatorsinfluenced by different configurations of nativewoodland and open ground?3. How does native woodland expansion in theuplands affect the demographics of a key birdspecies of open ground?4. Can the impacts of woodland creation on birds bepredicted nationally, by combining site-specific dataon densities and diversities with national birddistribution data and targeting maps for woodland creation?